American Revolution

In 1774, the Continental Congress passed a declaration to arm themselves and sent a petition to then king. The king doesn't get word of this until February of 1775. Parliament sent 1,000 more troops to the colonies in response. On April 19, 1775, the British sent soldiers to capture arms in Concord and Lexington. The American Militia meets the British there. A shot was fired which was named "the shot heard 'round the world." The colonists fired the first shot but no one knows the person who fired. 269 British soldiers were either dead or wounded.

In May of 1775, a second Continental Congress meeting was called as an emergency meeting. Congress formed the national army. George Washington was nominated as the General. The only problem with him was that he had never commanded a successful operation. It must have been nerve racking for the colonists to have him as their leader.

The British burned down the whole town of Charlestown. The first major battle of the American Revolution was The Battle at Bunker Hill. The British take Bunker Hill but the Americans consider it a victory because of the amount of British casualties. The Americans had slave troops. If slaves signed up to fight, they would be given their freedom afterwards.

Colonists urged the Continental Congress to send a second petition to the king. The Olive Branch Petition was the last attempt to stop the fighting. The king never even read the petition so the fighting didn't stop until the end of the war. Adams was in the Revolution, and he saw that it would transform America, which it did in the long run.